3 Main Reasons Why Dogs Chew

Chewing seems to be a matter of individual preference among dogs: some have an innate desire to chew as a pleasurable activity in itself, and some seem to have no need to chew whatsoever unless they’re driven to it out of sheer boredom.

The phrase “destructive chewing” may sound redundant, because – by its very nature! – all chewing is destructive. Your dog has strong jaws full of sharp, pointy teeth: just about anything she starts to chew on is probably going to show the effects of it inside of a minute. So just to clarify, when I use the phrase “destructive chewing”, I’m referring to inappropriate chewing: the kind of chewing that’s focused on your own possessions and household items, instead of on your dog’s own designated toys and chews.

The three main reasons why dogs chew:

- Most dogs have a natural desire to chew. It’s fun, it passes the time, and it’s a self-rewarding, self-reinforcing activity (for example, if she’s chewing on something that tastes good.)

- Chewing provides a nervous, bored, or lonely dog with an outlet for her emotions. To an anxious dog, the repetitive act of chewing is soothing – it’s the doggie equivalent of comfort food.

- Underexercised dogs often use chewing as a way of burning up nervous energy and giving themselves something to do.

- How to prevent destructive chewing -

Dogs are perfectly capable of learning not to chew your stuff – you just have to put in a little effort first, that’s all.

1. Take control of the situation: manage your own possessions. Your first step should be to dog-proof your home. Even if you have the best-behaved dog in the world, there’s still no reason to test her self-control – after all, dogs explore the world with their mouths.

Dog-proofing your home means taking whatever you don’t want to end up in her mouth, and making it unavailable. Consider her size and agility when deciding whether something’s out of reach: can she jump? Can she climb, or leap onto something else to reach the desired object? How tall is she when standing on her back legs?

Common targets in the home include books, eyewear, clothing, shoes, garbage, and small crunchy appliances like cameras, cell phones, and remote controls.

It should go without saying that all food needs to be put securely away: don’t leave snacks on low tables (or even countertops – you’d be surprised how acrobatic she can be when there’s food at stake!), put all food into containers or the pantry. Rinse your dirty plates clean of any food scraps before leaving them by the sink.

2. Prevent her from learning the joys of illegal chewing. The more times she manages to snatch a jawful of a forbidden substance – a chair-leg, a pillow, a running shoe – the more readily she’ll target those items in future. If you can prevent her from chewing your stuff in the first place, it’s a lot easier for her to understand what you expect of her. Practically speaking, this means confining her in a dog-proofed area until you’re confident of her understanding of the house rules.

3. Don’t set her up for failure by blurring the boundaries between her stuff (OK to chew) and your stuff (not OK to chew). Don’t offer your dog cast-off clothes, shoes, or towels to chew and play with: realistically, you can’t possibly expect her to be able to tell the difference between your current shoes and the one she’s got in her mouth that you gave her five minutes ago.

4. Provide her with lots of tasty alternatives to your stuff. If her environment is relatively barren of attractive, appropriate chewing objects, you can hardly blame her for targeting your possessions. Remember, most dogs need to chew; if she’s an adolescent (under three years) or a puppy (under one year), her needs will be even more pronounced. Go on a toy and chew shopping spree, then give her two or three to play with at a time. Rotating the available toys every few days will keep things novel and interesting for her.

5. Spend lots of time in active supervision. Yes, it might be easier for you to just keep her penned up in her crate, run, or the yard – but that’s boring and horrible for her, and hardly much fun for you either (if you wanted a pet that you don’t need to interact with, you’d have got a goldfish, right?) She can’t learn what you expect of her if she’s spending all her time boxed up in the dog-proof zone: she needs the opportunity to explore the boundaries of your expectations, so she can understand what’s appropriate and what’s not.

6. When you catch her chewing something inappropriate, interrupt her by making a loud noise: clap your hands or make an “Ah-ah-aaaah!” noise. Then, immediately hand her a tasty and dog-appropriate alternative (a rawhide bone or other chew toy); as soon as her jaws close around it, praise her lavishly. There is no better way to get your dog to understand that chewing “her” toys equals praise from you, but everything else equals trouble.

- Maintain a productive attitude -

Above all, remember to keep your expectations realistic. You’re not perfect, and neither is your dog: there’s likely to be at least one incident where a cherished item is damaged by her curiosity.

Particularly in the early stages of your relationship, she’s still learning the ropes: it’ll take awhile before she’s completely reliable (and even then, if she’s left by herself for too long or feels neglected, she may choose your stuff over hers to occupy her time and jaws with.) Remember to give her time to learn the rules, and plenty of ‘you-time’ to help her learn faster – and don’t forget to take precautions and keep things out of reach until she’s got the hang of the chewing rules!

For more information on dog training techniques and how to deal with problem dog behavior (like chewing), check out Secrets to Dog Training. It’s the complete manual for dog ownership and is designed to fast-track your dog’s learning.
You can visit the Secrets to Dog Training site by clicking on the link below:
*http://www.kingdomofpets.com/dogobediencetraining/?aff=e3398&type=chewing

Basics of Dog Training

It's essential for Dog parents like you to know certain basic factors that determine your relationship with your Dog and can go a long way in training him effectively.

Before you begin training your Dog, it is absolutely essential that you build a loving bond with him. This is important as it helps you to understand his needs and instincts and also allows your Dog to have complete trust in you.

Know more about Dog care from this free mini course

Let us see how.......

How To Bond With Your Dog

Building a bond with your Dog is the first and the most crucial step involved in training him successfully. As soon as you bring your Dog home, you must first try to develop a caring and loving relationship with him in order to win his trust and confidence.

When Dogs are secure in the knowledge that they belong to the family, they are more likely to respond better to their owners' training commands. Just like with any relationship, there must be mutual trust and respect between you and your Dog.

Trust takes time to develop and respect comes from defining boundaries and treating any breach of those boundaries with firmness and fairness.

Without enforceable limitations, respect can’t be developed. And when there is no respect, building a bond with your Dog is almost impossible.

4 Golden Rules To Building A Relationship With Your Dog :

• Spend quality time together;
• Take him out in the world and experience life together;
• Establish and promote a level of mutual respect; and
• Develop a way of communicating to understand each other's needs.

Building a bond with your Dog will not only help you manage him better but will also make your Dog calm, quiet and an extremely well-adjusted pet.

Love Your Dog and He Will Love You back

Once you're succesful in building a bond with your Dog, you can rest assured that training him and teaching him new and clever tricks will be a cakewalk.

Learn how to bond with your Dog with this free mini course.

How Your Dog Learns...

Your Dog's learning period can be divided into five phases:

The Teaching Phase - This is the phase where you must physically demonstrate to your Dog exactly what you want him to do.

The Practicing Phase - Practice makes Perfect. Once a lesson is learnt, practice with your Dog what you have just taught him.

The Generalizing Phase - Here you must continue practicing with your Dog in different locations and in an environment with a few distractions. You can take your Dog out for a walk, or to a nearby park and command him to practice whatever you've taught him.

Practicing the learned lessons in multiple locations and in the presence of small distractions will help him learn and retain lessons better .

The Testing Phase - Once you're sure that your Dog has achieved almost 90% success....he responds correctly almost every time you give a command, you must start testing his accuracy in newer locations with a lot of distractions.

Example: Take him to the local shopping mall and ask him to obey your command. He may not come up with the correct response the very first time you do this, but you must not lose hope.

The idea is to test your Dog to see how he responds in an environment which is new to him. Set-up a situation where you are in control of the environment and your Dog.

There are only 2 possibilities:

• Your Dog succeeds!!! (Trumpets please!)
• In case your Dog fails, re-examine the situation. Review and/or change your training. Then try testing again.

Keep on testing until he succeeds. Follow the rule of the 3 Ps – patience, persistence, praise.

Internalizing Phase - Finally, comes the extremely rewarding phase where your Dog does everything he is taught to do even without your commands.

Remember:

• Never scold your Dog if he fails. It's not his fault. You have failed as a trainer!
• You must be patient and persistent for your efforts to show rewards.
• Appreciate and love your Dog when he does it right! A little encouragement will work wonders for your Dog.
• Dog Training is easy when you do it right.

Learn how to train your Dog better with this free mini course.

Copyright (c) 2009 TrainPetDog.com

Is Your Dog Well-Groomed Enough?

The reason one should groom his/her dog is simple…your dog’s physical state influences the way he feels and the way you look at your dog. Extreme cases, where lack of proper care, cleaning and grooming can directly affect the behavior of a dog, are not rare.

Proper grooming, not only infuses a healthy glow to your dog’s appearance, but also helps develop his self-esteem; while it makes you a very proud parent, when you show off your dog to others.

The first step to Grooming is: Brushing!

Brushing has been universally acknowledged as the single most important step in grooming.

To name a few, the benefits of brushing are many:

* Better blood circulation
* Shinier and healthier coat
* Better bonding

Read more about brushing and combing and 31 different grooming tools and their application at:
http://e3398.dogroom.hop.clickbank.net/

Even if you know how crucial brushing is for your Dog's health and well-being, we all know that there is a right way and a wrong way of doing anything. And without doubt, you would like to do everything the RIGHT way when it comes to your Dog.

Yes, there's a method to follow while brushing your Dog.

Here are FIVE steps to successfully brushing your Dog that will prove to be extremely useful:

* Brush against the growth of the hair first with a slicker brush and then with a medium or wide toothed comb.

* The slicker brush removes all the loose hair and the comb takes care of the tangles.

* Brush your Dogalong the hair growth and make sure you reach the skin as you brush his way.

* Then use a flea comb over the coat to get the fleas and removing any remaining tangles. Part the coat and start from the root and then comb through.

* If your Dog's paw pads are hairy then clip them using electric clippers. Do not clip the hair in between the pads. Clip only the excess hair.

Brush your Dog's hairs to prevent it from matting. Matting can be a very painful experience.

Regular brushing untangles the matted hairs on your Dog's coat. Since this is a risky job to do, the best way out is to prevent them from forming in the first place. And doing this is simple: just brush and comb your dog regularly. If and when you see any mats or tangles; use a detangle solution and a medium toothed comb.

Know more on how to de-matt matted hairs at:
http://e3398.dogroom.hop.clickbank.net/

Don't wait until your dog is dirty or matted to introduce him to grooming. That would make him associate the experience with unpleasantness. Moreover, many dogs learn to see their routine brushing as an alternate petting, another source of affection and attention.

It also depends on the breed of dog you own. Which brush to use, whether to brush with the grain or against it, how often to brush.

Get this unique Dog Grooming guide and start Grooming your Dog all by yourself right from the comfort of your home Today.
http://e3398.dogroom.hop.clickbank.net/

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